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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of
this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of
Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
sem_timedwait — lock a semaphore
SYNOPSIS
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <time.h>
int sem_timedwait(sem_t *restrict sem,
const struct timespec *restrict abstime);
DESCRIPTION
The sem_timedwait() function shall lock the semaphore referenced by sem as in the
sem_wait() function. However, if the semaphore cannot be locked without waiting for
another process or thread to unlock the semaphore by performing a sem_post() function,
this wait shall be terminated when the specified timeout expires.
The timeout shall expire when the absolute time specified by abstime passes, as measured
by the clock on which timeouts are based (that is, when the value of that clock equals or
exceeds abstime), or if the absolute time specified by abstime has already been passed at
the time of the call.
The timeout shall be based on the CLOCK_REALTIME clock. The resolution of the timeout
shall be the resolution of the clock on which it is based. The timespec data type is
defined as a structure in the <time.h> header.
Under no circumstance shall the function fail with a timeout if the semaphore can be
locked immediately. The validity of the abstime need not be checked if the semaphore can
be locked immediately.
RETURN VALUE
The sem_timedwait() function shall return zero if the calling process successfully
performed the semaphore lock operation on the semaphore designated by sem. If the call
was unsuccessful, the state of the semaphore shall be unchanged, and the function shall
return a value of −1 and set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The sem_timedwait() function shall fail if:
EINVAL The process or thread would have blocked, and the abstime parameter specified a
nanoseconds field value less than zero or greater than or equal to 1000 million.
ETIMEDOUT
The semaphore could not be locked before the specified timeout expired.
The sem_timedwait() function may fail if:
EDEADLK
A deadlock condition was detected.
EINTR A signal interrupted this function.
EINVAL The sem argument does not refer to a valid semaphore.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
The program shown below operates on an unnamed semaphore. The program expects two command-
line arguments. The first argument specifies a seconds value that is used to set an alarm
timer to generate a SIGALRM signal. This handler performs a sem_post(3) to increment the
semaphore that is being waited on in main() using sem_timedwait(). The second command-
line argument specifies the length of the timeout, in seconds, for sem_timedwait().
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <signal.h>
sem_t sem;
static void
handler(int sig)
{
int sav_errno = errno;
static const char info_msg[] = "sem_post() from handler\n";
write(STDOUT_FILENO, info_msg, sizeof info_msg - 1);
if (sem_post(&sem) == -1) {
static const char err_msg[] = "sem_post() failed\n";
write(STDERR_FILENO, err_msg, sizeof err_msg - 1);
_exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
errno = sav_errno;
}
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
struct sigaction sa;
struct timespec ts;
int s;
if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <alarm-secs> <wait-secs>\n",
argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
if (sem_init(&sem, 0, 0) == -1) {
perror("sem_init");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
/* Establish SIGALRM handler; set alarm timer using argv[1] */
sa.sa_handler = handler;
sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
sa.sa_flags = 0;
if (sigaction(SIGALRM, &sa, NULL) == -1) {
perror("sigaction");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
alarm(atoi(argv[1]));
/* Calculate relative interval as current time plus
number of seconds given argv[2] */
if (clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts) == -1) {
perror("clock_gettime");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
ts.tv_sec += atoi(argv[2]);
printf("main() about to call sem_timedwait()\n");
while ((s = sem_timedwait(&sem, &ts)) == -1 && errno == EINTR)
continue; /* Restart if interrupted by handler */
/* Check what happened */
if (s == -1) {
if (errno == ETIMEDOUT)
printf("sem_timedwait() timed out\n");
else
perror("sem_timedwait");
} else
printf("sem_timedwait() succeeded\n");
exit((s == 0) ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE);
}
APPLICATION USAGE
Applications using these functions may be subject to priority inversion, as discussed in
the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 3.287, Priority Inversion.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
sem_post(), sem_trywait(), semctl(), semget(), semop(), time()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 3.287, Priority Inversion,
<semaphore.h>, <time.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event of any
discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the
original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .